Shark victim gives thanks for blood

By Leonie Lamont

May 19, 2009 — 12.00am

GLENN ORGIAS marked his 34th birthday in the intensive care unit at St Vincent's Hospital, two weeks after he was attacked by a shark while surfing at Bondi at dusk. And it was a celebration. He was alive.

A glass-half-full man, he considers himself fortunate, thanks to the two French tourists and a surfer on the beach who wrapped surfboard leg ropes as tourniquets on his arm, the plasma which he believed was pumped into him in the ambulance, the 50 units of red blood cells which kept him going in hospital, and the surgeons who performed 18 hours of microsurgery.

"I led a quiet life before I was bitten by a shark - and I loved that life and I don't want to be in the spotlight," Mr Orgias told the Herald yesterday. But he has an almost missionary desire to thank the Australian Red Cross Blood Service and those who provide blood for people like him.

So despite the dollars waved at him to tell his story, this morning Mr Orgias fronts up for free as the blood service's newest public face. A lapsed donor himself, he will help launch its football campaign, where fans of rugby league's State of Origin can "Donate for your state".

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He doesn't recall much of the attack but says the worst part was paddling back to shore with the help of a wave. "It was a miracle. The wave helped bring me in." And he wants to talk of the miracle of blood.

"Without the blood I would never have survived. It saved my life several times and along with that it gave me the opportunity to save my forearm, and it gave me the opportunity to save my hand, which, unfortunately didn't reattach."

His three weeks in intensive care were "scary, and funny at times, a real roller coaster". While he had the best of 21st-century surgical techniques applied to his care, he also had the medieval treatment of leeches sucking out blood from his hand. The nurses, he said, found them a bit disgusting.

Mr Orgias says he was inspired by the navy diver Paul de Gelder, who was battling after being mauled by a shark in Sydney Harbour the day before Mr Orgias was bitten. "He is a lovely guy, very courageous," he said.

Mr Orgias returned to work as an energy commodity trader about six weeks ago. While in hospital, he said his family protected him from a lot of news, but he was aware of calls to cull sharks following the spate of attacks.

"I don't want sharks to be culled … shark attacks are very rare," he said. "I knew the risk I was taking when I went out and I accepted that."